A Ribbon of Life Through the Concrete of Houston

Tell the Bayou Preservation Association What You Think About Its Plan to Destroy Buffalo Bayou

July 21, 2014

BPA Board Meeting Tuesday, July 22, at Noon

The Bayou Preservation Association, which is promoting the project to bulldoze Buffalo Bayou, is having a board meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22, at noon. The meeting is open to the public, so go and let the BPA know what you think about its plan to raze nearly 1.5 miles of perfectly healthy riparian forest along both banks of Buffalo Bayou in and around our public Memorial Park. The meeting is in the AECOM Building, 5444 Westheimer, third floor. (Update: The BPA is a private, non-profit organization, and its meetings do not have to be open to the public.)

Do be aware that not everyone on the BPA board nor every member of the BPA supports this ugly boondoggle, which would channelize one of the last remaining stretches of natural bayou left in the city, change the course of the bayou, excavate and fill in the banks, and obliterate magnificent cliffs, lovely creeks, and tributaries. It would replace the shady, wild banks with sun-baked Bermuda grass. Wildlife habitat would be eliminated.

A representative of AECOM is on the board of the BPA as well as a representative of KBR, the engineering contractor for the Buffalo Bayou project and a major donor to the BPA (along with the Harris County Flood Control District). Also on the BPA board are two property owners (Mike Garver and Terri Thomas) out of the half dozen or so private property owners whose property is to be “restored” by the $4 million taxpayer-funded portion of the $6 million HCFCD project. A major BPA donor (Michael Dishberger) is also a property owner benefiting from the public project.

BPA President Robert Rayburn works as development and natural resource director at the Energy Corridor District, which means promoting development of the Katy Prairie, which means more runoff and storm waters going into the dams and into Buffalo Bayou. The Energy Corridor District has written a letter of support for the project, citing “the importance of biotechnical drainage way stabilization and riparian restoration” [sic] and “the important role that stable, sustainable drainage corridors provide to surrounding properties …”

The BPA’s natural, sympathetic, holistic plan to help Buffalo Bayou be all it wants to be.

5 thoughts on “Tell the Bayou Preservation Association What You Think About Its Plan to Destroy Buffalo Bayou”

Please leave this one piece of historical Houston alone! The city is already a concrete jungle and to destroy this natural source of water, flora and fawn is an outrage. It has always been part of Houston. I remember when it was wild and flowing under Main street.

We continue to destroy the natural beauty of our cities and soon there will be nothing left. I oppose this plan to destroy Buffalo Bayou.

This is one of those ideas that last forever as an example. A bad one. This is the sort of thing that pits neighbor against neighbor because the law of unintended consequences will benefit, or not, one over the other. The properties involved will be tainted with lawsuits, ongoing maintenance expenses and unforeseen difficulties.
This is one of those projects that can also destroy a professional’s career. Hindsight being 20-20, the inevitable catcalls like “I told you so!” and “What were they thinking?” when the hubris becomes evident are going to really sting. Especially when, if you think about it, what’s going to last longer, some ill-conceived, limited execution exercise in futility like this big, expensive concrete and rebar experiment that’s going to perpetually dog an engineer their entire career or a nice, natural example of a system that worked for a lot longer and whose costs are visited directly on only those who would benefit from proximity? This is you wasting your time and putting your name and reputation on something that will ultimately look like a monumental waste. Brilliant career move.